Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

Happy New Year!  Our warmest Season's Greetings to all of our friends and we hope that 2018 is everything that you wish for!

The year just past - 2017 - was a fantastic year for Te Akau Racing and it will be a hard act for us to follow this year BUT HAVE NO FEAR, we will be firing on all cylinders trying!

Last year we won 21 Group and Listed races with horses that I bought and that included six at Group 1 level so that it our challenge to ourselves, to better that record.

We are so grateful to everyone who gives us horses to train and much of our success also comes from the many owners who purchase shares in horses that we buy.  These are owners who want to have fun, enjoy the racing experience and be involved with our very caring and professional team.

We could not achieve the levels of success that we do without you all!

With the Karaka Sale now just a couple of weeks away, I am again today on the road inspecting yearlings.  I started well before Christmas and have parades scheduled for every day this week and the next.

Today I am at Windsor Park Stud followed by Leanach Lodge and then tomorrow we start at Woburn Farm and then spend the remainder of the day inspecting the draft of Sir Patrick and Lady Hogan's Cambridge Stud - the final draft to be presented by the Stud under their ownership.

Gee I have seen some stunning yearlings catalogued for this year's sale!

When you think about the Karaka Sale, you automatically think about the race meeting on the eve of the Sale.  The Karaka Million twilight event at Ellerslie has really become a huge feature on the racing calendar and this year it moves to a Saturday, with the Sale starting for the first time on Sunday evening.

I can't tell you how excited we are about having two $1 million races on the agenda for yearlings from this sale - the Karaka Million and the Karaka 3YO Mile, now also worth $1 million.

For this year's Karaka Million, we are aiming to have four runners in this iconic 2YO race that we won with Melody Belle last year, and we will have two starters in the 3YO Mile.

Of course we hope for good weather for that event, unlike the deluge that unfortunately came to pass for the Ellerslie team on New Year's Day - however - we have everything crossed at the farm that the forecast rain comes tonight and tomorrow.  There has been some great rain around us but can you believe it, Te Akau Stud has missed it all and is really in need of it!

This is such a busy time of the year and we have each and every day full of inspections, racing, visitors and of course planning for Karaka - we are also looking forward to the Wellington Cup Carnival as we are taking a very strong Te Akau team south for most of the major races! Go the tangerine!

Have a great week!